Update from Tom Ryan (Ard Stiúrthóir)  and John Horan(Uachtarán)

We hope you, your family and fellow officers and members are well as we reach a juncture of the year when we would all ordinarily expect to be pre-occupied with games.

Firstly, we would like to acknowledge and thank all of our club officers and members for their part in helping the GAA play such a positive part in the country’s fight against the pandemic, not least by ensuring that we as an organisation have been compliant, but also in so many other crucial ways.

As we move to what looks like the next phase in the country’s effort to deal with the ongoing challenge, we want to flag the pending publication of our Return to Safe Activity Document which will follow the Government’s intent to move to phase two in their plan.

This document will be detailed and will reflect the new arrangements that will be required for clubs to be able to re-start activity in a safe and controlled manner.

It will require each club to appoint a person designated to manage the club’s approach and compliance with the guidelines but also a representative of each team in the club to liaise with this person.

The purpose of this correspondence is to signal the arrival of that roadmap in your inbox in the coming days and to provide time for clubs to consider suitable people to fill the aforementioned roles.

It is also worth pointing out that these new arrangements will represent considerable change to what we previously considered to be the norm.

To that end, the role of our officers and members – at every level – takes on an added importance and we thank you in advance for your work in this regard.

We trust your responsible judgement in implementing our guidelines and road map. We are happy for you to set your own pace provided it remains within the confines laid out in the documents we will share.

In the meantime, attached is a checklist of items we are asking clubs to study if they plan to re-open designated walking areas on June 8. Also attached is a planning template and rota for stewarding.

We are conscious of the work involved for clubs in opening their facilities at this time and it is at the discretion of clubs who have these facilities to make that decision for themselves.

Le gach dea ghuí,

Is muidne,

Tomás Ó Riain            Seán Ó hÓráin

Ard Stiúrthóir              Uachtarán